As the new year begins and children return back to school after a long holiday break, it may be a good time to look at new educational goals with your children. The key to setting goals that stick is to create small, attainable and specific goals that are age appropriate.
Parents of early childhood learners who are between three and five, focus on goals that appeal to the child’s curiosity and routine. Educational goals for this age group should be simple, playful and linked to the daily routine. Children under the age of six are still learning how to learn, so support their growth with goals that focus on curiosity instead of how well they learn.
Goals should also be similar, such as listening to one story each day or practicing letter recognition while playing. Set a time each day that the child needs to put away toys or other items when they are finished with them. When talking to the child about the goals, parents should make them seem fun and exciting. Create visual charts with stickers or simply praise the child when they do what they are supposed to do.
It is important to be consistent, so make sure the goals set work into your schedule as well. Plan time to read a story every night, whether it is as you are tucking the children in or immediately after dinner. The dishes can wait a half hour in order to promote learning.
Elementary aged children, between the ages of six and ten, are ready for educational goals to be more structured. Goals should be specific and skill focused. Goals could be mastering so many multiplication facts each week or reading so many books in a week or month. This is also a good age to teach organizational skills, so putting things away at a certain time each day is a good goal.
Don’t focus on your child being perfect in everything, but instead celebrate persistence, improvement and problem-solving. If the goal is to learn five multiplication facts in a week and the child learns three, celebrate that they learned those three and focus on improving the next week. Don’t constantly remind the child about the goals, but check in with comments like “how are those multiplication facts going?” Again, make sure whatever goal you set fits into your regular nightly routine as well.
Middle schoolers, aged 11 to 13, are in a transitional period academically and emotionally. Students are managing multiple teachers for the first time, increased homework and growing independence. Goals give your child ownership of their achievements while still providing guidance.
One way to help them set goals is to use open-ended questions as they create them. Some good questions include:
- What subject feels hardest right now?
- In what subject do you want to improve this year?
- What can you do to improve your grade in that class?
Don’t micromanage but act as your child’s coach. Help them reflect on what is working, what needs improvement, adjusting strategies and what they can learn from setbacks. This is also a great time to talk about balance, emphasizing that educational success requires sleep, stress management and including things that are enjoyable.
When a child reaches high school, educational goals should be more complex and focused on the future. Teens should connect goals to long-term ambitions, whether that means college, technical training, the military or the workforce.
Goals recommended for high school students could include improving GPA, preparing for the SAT or ACT, developing stronger writing skills, or exploring methods for entering a specific career. Have them set short- and long-term goals and revisit them regularly throughout the year.
It is at this age that parents should simply guide rather than control. Listen without judgement and help teens solve problems rather than fixing them. Teaching children to be self-reliant is a valuable skill.
Educational goal setting works best when the process grows with the child. Adjusting the way goals are set by age gives your child a higher chance of achieving their goals, not just in academics but in creating lifelong learning habits.
